When a small plane carrying Lynnwood resident Brad Andrews’ niece disappeared almost three years ago in Arizona’s rocky wilderness, search parties spent a month scouring 6,000 square miles.
Authorities looked for the crash site, for Andrews’ niece, 43-year-old Marcy Randolph, and for the plane’s pilot. They found nothing.
Then they gave up.
Andrews and his family didn’t.
Their continuing search consumed thousands of hours. They used planes, helicopters, long hikes and — Andrews’ idea — Google Earth.
“This was like a needle in a haystack,” said Andrews, 59. “I said, ‘Let’s find out where it is not. Let’s pull away the hay.’ “
Andrews loaded thousands of pieces of information onto his computer: the area’s topography, Randolph’s cell phone records, the plane’s radar track, other local plane crashes, and routes that various search parties had already covered. Andrews also visited the area near Sedona, Ariz., twice to conduct searches of his own.
He created three-dimensional maps so intricate that they look like something from an over-the-top Hollywood production. The study in his home became a sort of command center with a Google Earth brain.
Andrews had the time and the know-how. Now a writer and a school bus driver, Andrews had quit an earlier career that used computer-aided design skills to clear time for writing.
At his desk, maps piled on top of maps, and computer monitors competed for space with joysticks that ran flight simulators loaded with Arizona’s terrain. He tried to mimic his niece’s path. He used hunches, and his eye for detail to direct search expeditions a thousand miles away.
It worked.
In late April, the bodies of Randolph and the plane’s 54-year-old pilot, her friend William Westover, were found with the wreckage of a Cessna 182 at one end of Loy Canyon, a wooded and rocky ravine about 1,000-feet deep and less than a quarter-mile wide. The canyon is about 10 miles northwest of Sedona. No roads or trails venture to the canyon’s end.
The discovery was bittersweet.
Obviously, the family had hoped that Randolph’s disappearance had a different explanation. Still, the truth brought relief.
“We take solace now in knowing that after nearly a thousand days without her, our beloved Marcy is finally coming home to rest,” said Phil Randolph, Marcy’s father and Andrews’ oldest brother.
A memorial for Randolph, who was an accounts analyst, is scheduled for June 20 in the Phoenix area near the Randolph home.
The final break in the case came earlier this year, after an organization called the Missing Aircraft Search Team got involved.
According to Andrews’ database, Loy Canyon was the most likely crash site. As the search team’s volunteers prepared an expedition to Loy, they discovered that a hiker had notified the U.S. Forest Service about a fire there on Sept. 24, 2006 — the very day that Randolph’s plane disappeared.
The hikers even had a picture of the crash’s aftermath. Randolph’s plane isn’t visible, but orange flames and a faint white smoke plume are.
It frustrates the family that the fire report wasn’t ever picked up by official search parties.
Other problems also rankled the family. For instance, the initial National Transportation Safety Board report incorrectly listed the plane’s last known position as about 10 miles northeast of Sedona — almost 20 miles away from the actual last known position, 10 miles southwest of Sedona. For years, the family tried unsuccessfully to correct the error.
If there’s a silver lining to the dark cloud of Marcy Randolph’s death, it is in the picture that the hikers took in September 2006.
It shows the sky — cloudless and bright blue. The sun is shining.
The photo shows Andrews that up until her final moments his niece was loving life.
“She was probably having a really, really good time right up to that point. It was a beautiful day, it was wonderful country — terrifying from our standpoint — but it was really beautiful,” said Andrews, choking back tears. “Then, this thing happened.”
Chris Fyall: 425-339-3447, cfyall@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
